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The slew of new online users that emerged as a result of the pandemic's stay-at-home orders created new opportunities for fraudsters to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers, especially those under 25 and over 75, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The firm's latest biannual Cybercrime Report, which covered July 2020 through December 2020, revealed people under 25 were the most susceptible to fraud attacks, while the over-75 group – the second-most susceptible – lost the most money to fraud.
The high level of vulnerability among the youngest consumers can be attributed to the fact that many of them are new to digital services, according to the report; the under-25 age group accounted for a 10% growth in new online customers over a four-month period. In addition, LexisNexis said, younger generations are known to be more relaxed about sharing information online, which can make them more vulnerable to data breaches and identity theft.
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The over-75 cohort, however, may be more vulnerable to scams and phishing because they are less familiar with the latest digital technologies, the report said. They're also likely to lose the most money in a cyberattack due to their peaking levels of disposable income, and while the youngest – and generally least wealthy – consumers are less likely to experience theft in large dollar amounts, fraudsters target them because higher cyberattack success rates can offset lower monetary gains, LexisNexis hypothesized.
For the year overall, LexisNexis found that bot attacks grew by around 100 million and human-initiated attacks fell by about 184 million. Bot attack victims fared worse in the first half of the year, however, when the attack type grew by 13% in all industries year-over-year compared to the 2% year-over-year dip recorded for the second half of 2020. The financial services industry saw the biggest drop in bot attacks for the second half of the year (8%), but the report noted that "the absolute volume of attacks targeting this industry remains extremely high."
Financial services organizations saw more payment transaction attacks than any other industry and a year-over-year increase in payment transaction attack volume (69 million for July-December 2020 compared to 58 million a year prior), but experienced a significant drop in new account creation attacks (five million for July-December 2020 compared to 94 million a year prior), as well as a decline in login transaction attacks (36 million for July-December 2020 compared to 48 million a year prior), due to "a high volume of regular transactions from trusted customers." The major account creation attack drop can be attributed to a large bot attack that targeted new mobile app accounts in December 2019 and January 2020.
The bottom line, LexisNexis advised, is that organizations must prioritize protecting new-to-digital and vulnerable consumers. "While digital businesses are working hard to better provide for new and existing customers, they must identify and mitigate potential risks moment by moment in order to protect consumers from becoming victims of fraud," Rebekah Moody, director of fraud and identity for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said. "Building a layered defense is key. Uniting the best digital identity intelligence with physical identity solutions and behavioral biometrics intelligence can be the game-changer that organizations need to lessen the unpredictable tides of fraud."
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
